Gillibrand Returning Hsu $$ (update)

Following severalstories about the curious contributions by Norman Hsu, a convicted felon who is now a fugitive, to Sen. Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, politicians are scrambling to unload donations they received from him, including Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand.

The L.A. Times reports that Clinton is donating $23,000 she received from Hsu to charity; Gillibrand says she’ll do the same with the $4,600 she got from him. She also received $7,900 from members of the Paw family, whoseÂ donations, the Wall Street Journal found, appeared to match Hsu’s (see the first link above). According to the Journal’s chart, when associates of Hsu’s are added in, Gillibrand’s total reached $20,800.

In a statement today, Gillibrand said:

“I was surprised and concerned to learn the news reported in the LA Times regarding Mr. Hsu.Â I was completely unaware of this very serious matter and certainly would not have accepted donations from him had I known about it.Â I will promptly donate all contributions from Mr. Hsu to a local charity to benefit the community I serve and, until further information is available, I will return all funds that have been identified by the Wall Street Journal report as potentially questionable.Â

“As a rule any donations that I learn were improperly given to the campaign will be returned immediately.”